Riviera

Riviera dealer's 250 nautical mile journey from Sweden to Helsinki

After navigating the 250 nautical mile voyage from Sweden to Helsinki, Riviera dealer Tota Cavonius and his son Jens Peter looked forward with anticipation to another successful boat show.

The previous year the 3600 Sport Yacht was snapped up by a keen buyer on day two of the annual event, which was great news for Tota but meant they missed out on the promotional opportunity afforded by having a boat in stock.

In 2009 the 38 Flybridge was well-received by the Finnish market and has helped generate plenty of coverage in local boating magazines.

"The big boat magazines gave it a lot of coverage, both with photos and stories and the biggest magazine we have here tested it out after the exhibition," said Tota.

"The 38 offers both size and quality advantages for the Finnish boat market, and the inspection queues at the Helsinki show were continuous, with strong interest shown for this model."

He says Finland is a boating nation, with one in seven families owning their own vessel.

"They can, and often do, spend the entire four or five weeks of their summer holidays on board a boat.

"People tend to try to find a little bay that is remote from everyone else, and just to themselves for the night, rather than drop anchor with other boats.

"In Finland, you are allowed to go ashore anywhere, as long as you respect, and don't disturb the natural environment, even if there are people living in the area."

He says it's a law known as Everybody's Right.

But he says confident navigation skills are vital when boating in Finland, because of the large number of islands and the often shallow waters surrounding them.

"It's advised never to go outside the marked routes, especially if you are unfamiliar with the waters," says Tota.

"Finland has the most beautiful archipelago in the world but it requires good navigation skills. Every summer, a lot of people run aground or hit under water obstacles."

Tota and his 30-year-old son, Jens Peter had no such trouble navigating the 250 nautical mile trip from Sweden to Helsinki bringing the 38 Open Flybridge home with ease.

They picked up the boat from Ari Jukkola's main Airiboats marina, based in Stockholm, and took off just after lunch at 2pm.

‘'It's about 45 nautical miles from Stockholm to the open sea, the international waters between Sweden and Finland, but the total distance from Stockholm to Helsinki, depending which route you choose, is from 250 to 300 nautical miles," he explains.

The two men left Stockholm and hit the open sea at about 4pm.

"The wind was NNW and about 28 knots,' says Tota.

"But we didn't need to slow the boat speed, as the Riviera behaved nicely in those seas, even though they were rather rough further offshore."

At 6pm that same day, they moored in Mariehamn, the first Finnish town on the route, and father and son called in for a meal at the local sailing club, sleeping over at the marina.

The next day, they set off early, arriving at the Helsinki yacht club to moor at 8pm.

"I've been sailing in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea all my life, and we had no problem navigating the Riviera 38 Open Flybridge, with the hull suited to the ‘rather big seas' and the boat remained stable throughout the trip."

Tota believes the Riviera range, particularly models from the 3600 Sport Yacht to the 45 Flybridge, have ‘excellent potential' in the Finnish market.

"When people go out boating here they tend to anchor in bays rather than the marina," says Tota.

"And most of these areas are suited to boats no bigger than 40-45 foot.

"In that sense, Riviera's sport yacht models 3600 and 4400, and the Flybridge models up to 45 foot, would suit the average boater here perfectly.

"The quality and finish of these boats are aimed at the discerning end of market and the design is always well received."

Tota says the standard equipment on the boats, and the ‘many practical and innovative solutions' are appreciated in Finland.

"As the economic situation is now heading in the right direction, we will be selling several Riviera boats in the Finnish and Swedish markets in the near future."